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I’m MAC, the author of the ongoing mystery series, The Professionals. I will be posting about everything under the sun, including my books and other stuff I’m writing. Speak your mind! Leave comments! But because this site is for folks of all ages, your comments get approved before posting.

Good Causes

So, Greg Collins, Anna Smudge’s book designer gave me a very valuable piece of advice, which I will most definitely pass down to my children, and encourage them to pass to theirs… Never brush your teeth and then drink a glass of orange juice. It is vile. It is disgusting. It tastes like acidic bubble bath and haunts your taste buds until you have breakfast the next morning. Well, Greg told me this and instead of listening to his advice, it got me curious. So, I went home and tried it and have deeply regretted the experience ever since. I even mentioned it in an interview I had with Richard Vasseur from Jazma Online. Check it out!

It’s time for some more art by Glenn “Twinkle Toes” Fabry!

Back when we were discussing what the characters in Anna Smudge actually looked like, Glenn did some preliminary sketches for a bunch of folks. Check out his initial sketches and my comments below. And check out this interview Glenn had with Wizard Magazine about working on Anna Smudge.

Donny "the Meatball" Fratelli

A is a little rotund. Donny is a humongous giant of a man, and he devours chocolate cannolis like there’s no tomorrow, but he’s no Jabba the Hutt. And in C he’s just a little too ape-like and dumb. Not nearly scary enough. After all, this man steals candy from children and makes small infants cry! The B version that Glenn drew of Donny is perfect. Exactly how I had always pictured him in my head!

Mrs. Summer

Man, when Glenn faxed these sketches over I could not stop laughing! We ended up going with version C. A was a little too bird-like, and B was just plain creepy.

The Naked Seaweed Man

I went with A. You see, NSM used to be a very handsome and successful man before his crazy seaweed, rhyming days. So, I still wanted you to be able to see a glimmer of the guy he used to be through all of that foliage. And let me tell you, many of my girlfriends thanked me for making that decision, and really want to know who Glenn’s model was for the final drawing.

Jacob Pierce

This was the first sketch of Jacob, and after staring at it for a good five minutes, I lost my appetite for the rest of the day. It was absolutely disgusting. It was perfect. Only thing is Jacob doesn’t have curly hair, and he’s a thin kid. So, Glenn kept the gross factor intact, put Jacob on a strict diet, and stuck some hair relaxer on his head.

Okay nothing grosses me out more than a mushy brown banana on top of my cereal. I only like to eat bananas when they are nice and ripe. Maybe it’s because I have vivid memories of having to take this disgusting medicine when I was younger, and it was thick, yellow, and supposed to be banana flavored. Yuck!!

And while we’re on the topic of bananas… I was interviewed by a big gorilla at the New York Comic Con. Well, I was actually interviewed by two very nice ladies, and there just happened to be a hairy gorilla standing next to us. Go figure!

I’m 4 minutes 36 seconds in. But the guy talking before that is Neal Adams, who is pretty much the best Batman artist ever. Check out Gorillawire TV.